Journey
by nyaaaaaauuuuuuuu
Summary: Inuyasha wakes up in an unfamiliar place but meets very familiar people. Kagome, on the other hand, may never wake up at all...
1. Chapter 1

I disclaim: _Inuyasha_ and all associated characters belong to whomever they belong to (i.e., not me).

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Journey

Chapter 1

Inuyasha groaned. He felt like shit. He briefly wondered how he had got that way and then decided he didn't want to know. Just as long as Kagome was around to bandage him up and tell him what had happened, everything would be okay. Wait, where was Kagome?

Inuyasha jolted awake, ears and eyes and nose open for any sign of the girl. Instead of Kagome – or Miroku, Sango, Shippou or Kirara – his senses detected a simple room that looked well-accustomed to wealthy occupants. The walls and shouji were bluish-white, trimmed in polished wood of a dark mahogany-brown. The futon cover and blanket felt to be made of an extremely soft material, probably quite expensive. That was fine; there was nothing wrong with that. But the smell...everything seemed to be permeated with Sesshoumaru's stink, and yet...not. There was an underlying scent that was almost, however strangely, comforting. No matter. Sesshoumaru had certainly been by recently, and he was not far away, and that was troubling.

Also troubling was what Inuyasha could hear. He could hear his own breathing, of course, and the movement of blankets as he inhaled and exhaled. He could also, however, hear the noise of breathing not his own - it was much faster, as if the lungs were smaller and could not hold so much air. Slowly, Inuyasha turned his head toward the noise.

"Aaaah! Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama is awake!" squealed a girl - that human girl he'd seen with his brother - who looked to be five or six years of age. That explained the breathing.

"Urgh," said Inuyasha intelligently.

Suddenly the girl's face appeared inches from his own.

"Ohayou, Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama! Can Rin get you anything? This Rin just had breakfast and there is miso soup if Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama wants it!"

Inuyasha thought he really wanted her to stop calling him that ridiculous title, but there was one far more pressing matter.

"Uh...Kagome...where?"

"Sorry, Inuyasha-" the rest of his newly-acquired title Inuyasha blocked from his mind. Kagome, damn it, he wanted Kagome! "-sama, Rin does not know what a kagome is, but she will ask Jaken-sama and maybe he can get it from the kitchens. And if Jaken-sama doesn't know, Sesshoumaru-sama will know!"

"No, Kagome...girl – miko. Green clothing." Damn, it seemed as if he'd been stabbed through a lung. Talking was far too difficult.

"Ooh. Kagome is the nice miko-lady that travels with Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama?"

Inuyasha grunted assent.

"Oh, but that lady is here! Rin thinks Sesshoumaru-sama put her in the gardens..."

Sesshoumaru put her in the gardens? What?

"Need...get to...Kagome..."

"Sorry, Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama, what did you say?"

Inuyasha mentally cursed his wounds as the room became blurry and then faded to black.

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When Inuyasha woke up again he felt a lot better. It felt as though his lung had almost healed completely. How had he gotten injured, anyway? He really couldn't remember...

He opened his eyes to find small brown ones staring straight back at him from only inches away.

"Gah!" He attempted to shuffle back on the futon. As Rin happened to be sitting on his stomach, this completely failed to alleviate his problem. It did, however, clue him in to another problem he had. There were fingers on his ears. Small, pudgy, pinching fingers of a human girl. They squeezed.

"Ow! Da-er," Inuyasha swatted her hands away, surprised that he'd been able to control his mouth. Maybe Kagome's reprimands about swearing in front of children had finally kicked in. Kagome! Shit! This girl hadn't seemed to know anything about Kagome before, and it was unlikely she could help him. He'd just have to wait until Sesshoumaru decided to show up.

"Don't touch my ears," he growled.

Rin was undaunted. Inuyasha figured Sesshoumaru might be induced to growl at her quite frequently.

"Sorry, Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama! Rin wanted to!" said the girl brightly.

"Well, I don't want you to, got it? Why the hell would you fucking want to anyway?" he asked before he could stop himself. Okay, maybe the reprimands hadn't kicked in.

"No one else has ears like Inuyasha-" Inuyasha tuned out as she recited his elaborate title, "-not even Sesshoumaru-sama, and--"

"Sesshoumaru _does_ have ears like this, little girl!"

"He does?" Rin gazed at Inuyasha raptly, eager to learn something new about her beloved caretaker. "But where, Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama? Rin has never noticed them!"

"He...eh...when he's in his true form he has ears like mine. But bigger, and, uh, floppier, and really hairy..."

"Oooh. What is Sesshoumaru-sama's true form?"

"Wha—" Did this child know nothing of her keeper? "You know, girl, when he turns into a giant white dog?"

_"A-a giant white doggy? Cute_," squealed Rin, clasping her hands together and rocking precariously on Inuyasha's stomach. He gagged, both from her reaction and the pressure on his midsection.

"Is there something _wrong_ with you, little girl? He's not remotely _cute_," Inuyasha snorted derisively, "He's a bloody killer! He's gotta be brainwashing you!"

"Rin doesn't know what brainwashing is, Inuyasha-Sesshoumaru-sama-no-otouto-sama, but Sesshoumaru-sama says Rin drives him up the wall!"

Inuyasha blinked at this nonsequitor. It didn't appear that she quite knew what that phrase meant either, but she seemed quite proud of the fact, nonetheless. Inuyasha was surprised Sesshoumaru had admitted that sort of thing to himself, much less to this girl, who was currently bouncing up and down on her heels as if she had springs in her bottom. Inuyasha was beginning to feel sick.

"Yeah, I could see how you would."

Rin stopped bouncing and flashed an enormous gap-toothed grin at Inuyasha.

"And, uh, you can just call me Inuyasha, drop that fucking ridiculous title...It was Rin, right?"

"Hai, Inuyasha-sama!"

"No, just Inuyasha--"

"Rin," came Sesshoumaru's austere voice from the doorway - when had the shouji opened? Inuyasha had been too preoccupied in arguing with Rin to scent Sesshoumaru's approach. It must be because he was wounded, damn it.

"Rin," said Sesshoumaru again, "It is not polite to bounce on a person's stomach when he is injured."

"Oh!" she said, "Sorry, Inuyasha-sama!" And she rolled off onto the futon, where she knelt and tucked her feet underneath her in proper maidenly fashion.

"So..." said Sesshoumaru, addressing Inuyasha now, "You're awake, halfling."

"Keh, I..." Inuyasha at first bristled at the contempt that laced his older brother's voice, but then his questions came pounding back into his head. He wanted to know why, what, when, where...

"Where is Kagome?" he asked quietly. Sesshoumaru raised an aristocratic eyebrow. This was not what he had expected. Sesshoumaru had expected his uncultured half-brother to demand why he was where he was in a loud and aggravating manner until he would be forced to give in to the admittedly-pleasing need of knocking the boy unconscious.

"Where is Kagome?" Inuyasha repeated, "Rin said she was here."

"Yes," said Sesshoumaru slowly, "She is in the gardens." Apparently Rin had not told Inuyasha _why_ his miko was in the gardens. The situation was going to become noisy soon. How annoying.

"Yes, Rin said that," said Inuyasha testily, glaring at his brother, "I mean, why isn't she _here_?"

"Well, she's dead," said Sesshoumaru, as if answering a question any simpleton should know, like why the sun circled the Earth daily.

"What? She's..._what_? What do you mean...?" Inuyasha found he suddenly couldn't breathe, he also couldn't see very well, and it felt as though Sesshoumaru had shoved five poison claws into his throat. He raised one hand absently, to check. She can't be...she's not...Kagome? He's- he's lying...I'll...But Inuyasha's mind also seemed defunct, until...

"Sort of." Sesshoumaru had found the changes that had come over his half-brother fascinating, even surprising. His body had become as still as his consort's, but his eyes had gone red in grief or rage - Sesshoumaru didn't know. But the most interesting thing of all was the drops of salt-scented water that had appeared in the corners of those mad-red eyes.

"Sort of!" And all of a sudden Inuyasha was alive again. "What the _fuck_ do you mean by 'sort of,' Sesshoumaru?"

"Calm down, little brother--"

"Don't mock me - don't you dare mock me - I'm already--" Inuyasha's limbs flailed in manifestation of his mental turmoil. He narrowly avoided clocking Rin, who had not moved, on the head.

"I am not mocking you, Inuyasha," said Sesshoumaru sternly, deciding enough was enough, and the rare use of his name showed Inuyasha that his brother was indeed telling the truth. Inuyasha became still once again, but his eyes, properly gold, fixed their gaze on Sesshoumaru's face. Sesshoumaru continued, "I must insist, simply, that now is not a time for rash actions."

Inuyasha tried not to be infuriated.

"Will you just...please…explain _something_ to me...!" Inuyasha bit out. He was controlling his temper, but barely. Then he seemed to realize something, and inhaled slowly.

"How about starting with how I...and Kagome...came to be here. Where _is_ here, anyway?"

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AN:

So...I think I know where I'm going with this, but we'll see.

I hope you all enjoy it, anyway!


	2. Chapter 2

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Journey

Chapter 2

"Ah," Sesshoumaru began. Loath as he was to skirt the inevitable explanation, he found himself tackling the less pressing question first.

"You are home," he said.

"Home?" questioned Inuyasha sharply, "Whose home? Your home?" Tendrils of long-forgotten memories tickled his consciousness. Whispers of: your father – Sesshoumaru – palace beneath the cliffs, above the sea – beautiful, and empty – always empty.

"Yes, my home," Sesshoumaru wondered why he supposed Inuyasha ought to be aware of this place and its history as he was ignorant of all else concerning his heritage. Sesshoumaru conveniently failed to acknowledge that he could have alleviated this ignorance before – indeed, why was he compelled to _now_? He quashed the thought before it could grow in magnitude and reasoning.

"And the home of Chichi-ue. And of his father before him," Sesshoumaru continued, "The very edifice, in fact, in which you were born."

"Whatever," said Inuyasha, not entirely sure how to react to that, and, in fact, not entirely sure how he felt about it. He began again, tiredly, "What I want to know is how Kagome and I got here, and how I can fix Kagome."

Inwardly, Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes; ever so bluntly to the point, his little half brother. And not to be deterred from the quarry in a hunt. Sesshoumaru supposed that was one admirable quality Inuyasha had, but he wouldn't let the fact weigh too heavily on his mind. Keeping his expression placid and just noticeably disdainful, Sesshoumaru began to speak.

"Normally, if you trespassed on my territory without permission, I would kill you—"

"You just try—"

"—without hestation," continued Sesshoumaru calmly, "But the manner of your arrival was bizarre enough that it merited further investigation. Also, I find no honor in killing those already half-dead."

Inuyasha sputtered. Sesshoumaru went on.

"You and the girl were found in a clearing on the shores of Lake Biwa several days ago. I will not yet inquire as to how you came to be there. According to the sentry the girl was already dead, but you yet lived. The sentry recognized you as my family, and as such, protected you—"

Inuyasha's laugh was sharp. "Fucking ironic—"

"Indeed," but Inuyasha butted in before Sesshoumaru could get further.

"You mean to tell me you actually _don't_ have all your people trained to kill me on sight?" Inuyasha laughed again, "Why you fucking—"

"I reserve that privilege for myself," said Sesshoumaru, almost sharply, "And I see no need to spread family affairs to the general public. That they learn some things is inevitable, but privacy has its merits. As I was saying before your rather juvenile outburst," Sesshoumaru smirked inwardly as Inuyasha stewed, "The sentry protected you from carrion-feeders and jewel-seekers until I arrived some time later.

"The girl was indeed dead, but you were a miserable pile of blood and bones," Sesshoumaru drawled reminiscently – Inuyasha couldn't tell if it was for show or not, "And while Jaken loaded you onto the pack-dragon—"

"A-un!" piped up Rin, but she was silenced by an exasperated glare from Sesshoumaru. Inuyasha was suddenly struck by the thought that Sesshoumaru might be a real person beneath his cold, arrogant, and generally bastardly persona.

"—_Tenseiga_ told me that the girl could be saved, but though I cut the demons of the netherworld away, she remained as dead. I do not like to be beset with riddles to which I do not know the answers. You shall answer that one for me. No, don't grumble. We've reached the part where you explain how you came to be on my lands."

Silence fell. Inuyasha had crossed his arms and was glaring through the open shouji at the sunlight streaming in from some hidden window. A cloud of dust particles blew through the beam of light, sparkling.

Finally Inuyasha spoke.

"Fine," he said, "I'll tell you. I'll tell you, but only because I'm trying to figure it out for myself, got it?"

Sesshoumaru said nothing, and Inuyasha paused, trying to prop himself into a more comfortable position. He took a deep breath and started again.

"I'm not sure how long ago it was, but we had just left the village—" at Sesshoumaru's sharp look he elucidated: "—you know, the one where I was stuck to a damn _tree_ for fifty years..."

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AN: Short chapter, I admit. But it'll be followed by longer, slow-moving background info, I promise.


	3. Chapter 3

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Journey

Chapter 3

_Ten days earlier…_

It was a very windy day.

The sun was bright and the air warmish, but fat, low, cumulonimbus clouds heavy with rain passed swiftly overhead. Blue sky was visible between the poofy dollops of cloud. The wind that carried the clouds also caused the trees of the forest to whip and thrash, silvery leaves whistling against each other and giving the impression that the forest was whispering to itself.

Kagome dozed on Inuyasha's shoulder, and he was content to let her. The weather was fair enough, and the day peaceful so far, and everyone deserved a day of rest. In Inuyasha's mind that meant a day of steady travel uninterrupted by any near-fatal battles. So, with no news of Naraku's current whereabouts, they were traveling inland, trying a new direction: south and west, hoping to at least stumble upon a jewel shard.

Lost in thought, Inuyasha was half a second slow-to-react when a branch he'd jumped on cracked and broke, and he felt Kagome swing away and then slam into his back.

"Gnuh," she grunted into his shoulder, awake but only half-aware.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said.

"'S okay," she said, "Was I 'sleep?"

"Uh huh."

"What time's it?"

"Mid afternoon."

"Okay."

Presently, Inuyasha felt Kagome's head fall back onto his right shoulder and the arm swung over his left shoulder go slack with sleep. He gripped her thighs more tightly and leaned forward to prevent dropping her should he accidentally go through a branch again.

He glanced skyward, locating Kirara about thirty feet above and to his left. Shippou snored on Sango's lap, and it appeared that Miroku had fallen asleep on Sango's shoulder, mimicking Kagome's position on Inuyasha. In fact, the priest's hands were barely gripping his _shakujou_, which lay across Sango's thighs – it was actually being held in place by Sango's elbows. Miroku, to all appearances, was drooling unconsciously onto Sango's shoulder.

Stupid lecher, thought Inuyasha, bet it's all for show. Less than ten minutes says his hand'll be on Sango's ass.

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By sundown, the prophesied groping still had yet to happen, so Inuyasha conceded that Miroku must actually be asleep. When the first star began to show, Sango directed Kirara closer to Inuyasha and called out to him that they ought to stop for the night. Inuyasha nodded assent and began to descend from the canopy.

"I think I smell a river about half a mile away. I suppose you women'll want to bathe…"

Sango's face, tired from the day's travel, brightened, and she said, "Yes, I'd love to. And Kagome-chan is always up for a bath."

"Fine, fine," Inuyasha grumbled, and led onward.

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Having found a suitable clearing, Inuyasha and Sango began the laborious process of waking up Kagome, Shippou, and Miroku. Well, laborious in Kagome and Shippou's cases. Sango simply shook herself from Miroku's embrace, and his resulting fall from Kirara's back woke him quite efficiently. Inuyasha, who knew the perils of a sleeping Kagome – actually, why _had_ he let her fall asleep? She could have _osuwari_'d them both – was trying to figure out a peaceful and quiet way to wake her up.

Meanwhile, Sango was poking Shippou in the stomach. Kirara, now in her smaller form, and trying to be helpful, licked the _kitsune_'s face. Her tongue had a sand-papery texture worthy of any cat and was an unusual-enough feeling to the poor child that it worked where Sango's poking had not. Shippou greeted them with a face of disgust and an, "Ewwww, Kirara, that scratches…"

Kirara mewed a reply and Sango cut in, "Shippou, Kagome and I are going to take a bath before dinner. Want to come?"

Inuyasha had laid Kagome down on the grass and was gently nudging her with his foot. He was taking care to stay as far away from her as possible, in case she accidentally _sat_ him.

"C'mon, wench," Inuyasha muttered, "Wake up already."

Miroku, who had finished groaning and had removed himself from the ground, ascertained Inuyasha's difficulties and approached him, smiling evilly.

"Why, Inuyasha, surely there are far more pleasant ways to wake Kagome-sama up?"

"Yeah, like what," said Inuyasha, snappishly, "Groping her? Sorry, but I'm not a fucking pervert like you."

"I would never suggest something so base, Inuyasha. Really, you shame me –" Inuyasha snorted, and Miroku continued, "– but you could shake her shoulder, or call her name, or – didn't Kagome-sama tell us a story once where a man had to wake a woman up by kissing her? Give it a try!"

"Why, you!" Inuyasha roared, blushing, and made a swipe at Miroku, which the agile priest dodged. Fortunately, his shout had the happy result of waking up Kagome, and she captured Inuyasha's attention by asking, sleepily, "Why you yelling?"

"Keh, no reason. Go take your bath with Sango."

"Bath? Oooh, yes!" Kagome exclaimed, looking around for Sango. Spotting her, she called, "Sango-chan? Bath?"

"I was just getting the supplies from your bag, Kagome-chan."

"Oh, goodie. Let's go." And, Shippou in tow, they went.

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The group passed a quiet evening and an uneventful night, but Kagome woke early in the morning to a bleary grey dawn and a tingling at the base of her spine. Fidgeting, she tried to go back to sleep, but only ended in knocking Shippou out of her sleeping bag. After that, she thought it must be around 6:30, and everybody would be waking soon anyway, so why not just get up? She wiggled her way out of the sleeping bag and replaced Shippou inside it, and turned to find Inuyasha glaring at her.

"Good morning to you, too," Kagome said.

"What're you doing up this early?" Inuyasha asked, and she realized he wasn't quite glaring, but staring almost anxiously.

"I couldn't sleep," she said, and she paused before continuing, "And, Inuyasha, I think I feel the presence of a jewel fragment. A strong one…"

Inuyasha's worried expression turned into one of vindictive satisfaction.

"Hah, only a day's travel and we've found one –"

"Yeah, but I don't how far it is or how many there are, and I can only sense that it's vaguely, vaguely –" Kagome paused to concentrate, swinging round until she had her back to the rising sun, "—west."

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AN: Plodding along, singing a song, at the bottom of the beautiful briny sea!


	4. Chapter 4

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Journey

Chapter 4

"Inuyasha."

"Inuyasha…."

Inuyasha would have given Kagome a rude reply, but he had already been '_osuwari_'ed three times that day, and even he had his limits, sometimes.

It had become a very wet day, not raining precisely, but just sort of muggy and misty and muddy and overall miserable. Miroku, Sango, and Shippou were riding on Kirara, who was flying, and Kagome was riding on Inuyasha's back, but Inuyasha actually had to run through all the muck. And it was making him irritable.

"Inuyasha, we _are_ going to stop soon, right? I tried asking nicely, okay? Some of the rest of us are tired—don't pretend you can't hear me – I'm practically shouting in your ear!"

Fuck. It felt as if she _was_ shouting in his ear. He had just wanted to make good time toward that shard today, too. But then there was Shippou falling in the river. And Kagome dropping her backpack so that everything fell out and got muddy and had to be washed. And, okay, he'd sensed a youkai, but it had turned out to be a (relatively) harmless magpie that had simply wanted to steal all their shiny things. Miroku had ended up knocking it out with his staff. And after that the rain had gone from dripping to pouring and had only just let up half an hour ago…

Inuyasha felt Kagome's head thud down on his shoulder. Apparently, she had grown tired of trying to get him to respond. He was on the verge of sighing is relief when she rose up to lean more heavily on his shoulders. He nearly overbalanced.

"Inuyasha…."

Fuck it, he thought, that does it.

"Fine, bitch, we're fucking stopping," and with that Inuyasha jumped down from the sunset-gilded tree and dropped Kagome on her rear-end in the middle of a clearing. She landed with a satisfying thump. A thud and a crash (her book bag and bicycle, respectively) later, Inuyasha had bounded off into the trees again.

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Kirara and the rest alit half a minute later to find Kagome still sitting in the middle of the clearing, tears leaking down the side of her face.

"An auspicious second day of our journey," said Miroku sarcastically. It earned him a grope-worthy conking from Sango, who went to comfort Kagome.

Shippou was already perched on Kagome's knee when Sango reached her. He'd flung his arms about her left one, and she was patting his head with her right.

"Kagome-chan," began Sango, "What did he do this time?"

"Oh, nothing really," said Kagome, "I was annoying him…sort of purposefully…and I guess he just got fed up. But I wasn't even _meaning_ to the last time! I was just going to ask about where we were going – I don't even know what I was going to ask him. And he just dropped me on the ground…"

Sango awkwardly put an arm around Kagome's shoulders.

"Well, you know how bad his temper is…and the littlest things seem to get you two going," Sango missed the sharp look Kagome threw at her, "So he'll probably sulk at you for a while, huh?"

"Yeah…And he'll never apologize. I think the only time he ever told me he was sorry was when he broke my alarm clock," Sango blinked uncomprehendingly, but Kagome continued, sighing, "I suppose I shouldn't have been annoying him so. I didn't really mean to, but maybe if I apologize, he'll forget about it. I'm already stressed out enough with schoolwork and chasing after jewel shards and defeating the big bad evil dude, you know? I really don't need him to be grumpy to me on top of everything else."

Sango didn't exactly follow, but she nodded.

"Okay. I'll go find him, apologize, give him ramen, and everything will be fine, right?" Kagome asked brightly. Again, Sango just nodded. Kagome stood, and so did Sango.

"Hey, Shippou-chan, you think you can help Miroku-sama and Sango-chan while I go find Inuyasha?"

"Do you promise to give me ramen, too?"

Kagome's mind momentarily flashed to a memory of her mother asking her grandfather laughingly, "It's always a compromise with them, isn't it?" Kagome smiled.

"If you promise to take good care of them Shippou-chan, then yes, you may have a ramen. Okay, then, I'm going."

From across the clearing came Miroku's voice, "Alone, Kagome-sama? You ought to at least take your bow and arrows."

As Kagome complied with that wise advice, Sango turned on Miroku.

"Why, you eavesdropper!" Kagome heard as she neared the edge of the clearing.

Smiling slightly, she left them to their bickering.

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It had been dusk when Inuyasha had dropped Kagome on her rump in the dirt, and now it was well into evening. This made it hard for Kagome to tell exactly where she was going, as everything had become sort of gray and blurred together as it does to the poor humans that lack keener eyesight. She hadn't started tripping on tree roots yet, but she thought that point wasn't far off. She'd called for Inuyasha a couple of times, but he hadn't answered, so she'd been trying to sense him by his youki.

Kagome knew that she felt – detected, whatever – different magical energies in different ways. The shikon jewel shards always appeared as bright flashes in her mind, similar to seeing stars. She had a harder time sensing youki; well, not necessarily sensing, but using what she sensed to tell her something about the youkai making it. She could tell if something was really strong, but that was about it. On top of that, she'd noticed that youki levels had a lot to with the emotional states of their owners. She could understand that. To her knowledge, her holy powers worked the same way. But the point was that Inuyasha was probably sulking, and in response, his youki would be sulking with him, clinging close to his body and hunching in upon itself. Probably at the top of a tree, too, she added, disgruntled.

She stopped walking and took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she tried to sense the youki in the area around her. It was always a sort of tingling up and down her spine. The feeling she associated with Inuyasha usually occurred at the base of her neck—there it was! Off to the left! Kagome was so happy about having found it that she totally overlooked the other tingles along her spine. Blithely, she started walking.

Five minutes later, the feeling of Inuyasha's youki had grown strong enough that she didn't have to concentrate to sense it. She was also getting little knots in her stomach and back, but those she attributed to nervousness. What was she going to say to him? Well, starting off with, "I'm sorry…"

"Inuyasha," Kagome called, and then called again. "Look, Inuyasha, I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I know I was being a pain in the butt, but I didn't mean to make you upset. Please come down—"

"Upset!" Inuyasha had practically appeared out of nowhere and was now standing nose to nose with her – well, that had worked like magic, "Who the fuck says I'm upset, you stupid girl?"

"I…look, I said I'm sorry. Will you please come back and have some ramen?"

Inuyasha wasn't sidetracked at all.

"Trying to bribe me with ramen, now?"

"I am _not_ trying to bribe you with anything," Kagome lied, "I'm sorry I made you annoyed, I didn't like being dropped on my ass, and I just wanted you to come back, okay, stupid!"

In hindsight, Inuyasha had realized that dropping her on her ass in that clearing probably hadn't been the best thing to do, and he could see she'd been crying, but, "You were fucking whining in my ears all day, and you say you didn't _mean_ to annoy me? Fat chance—"

"Oh, come on, Inuyasha. It was late, we were all tired, and I was just teasing. I said I'm sorry."

All of a sudden Kagome feel such a strong wave of youki radiating evil that she could feel the bile rising in her throat. Inuyasha had already positioned himself in front of her, Tessaiga at the ready. Fifty meters away the bushes shook. The trees shivered in a malignant wind, and the fog near the ground seemed to crawl. A giant shape began to materialize out of the murk.

Its maw came first, gaping full of broken, shiny teeth, salivating what looked liked blood. Its snout was framed by long, gleaming tusks. Then its eyes, rolling back in its head as it gurgled and snorted. From Kagome's vantage point it almost looked as if it had thick, writhing fur, but then realized it was blood-colored like the evil worms on the boar god in _Mononoke-hime_. Another wave of nausea hit her, and she swallowed uneasily.

"Jewelllll….shardsssss," the boar grunt-hissed, foamy blood spilling from its mouth, "Give m-me the shardsss…."

"Bring it on, you filthy pig..." growled Inuyasha.

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AN:

It'll probably be a while before the next update, as all that I've posted I actually had already written and was just tweaking it. So I'll work on it as much as possible, but I'm a very bad procrastinator (and so is my muse), so I can only tell you that the story will be updated, just not necessarily when.

I know dedications usually go at the top, but I'd like to thankall my reviewers, and Miko no Kaze and Meggiebeth especially for their lovely reviews of this story by dedicating this chapter to them. Thank you guys so much!

-nyaaaaaauuuuuuuu


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